Detectives of the Territorial Administration of the Economic Security Bureau in the Odesa region seized foreign-made hookah tobacco without excise tax stamps for a total amount of over UAH 31 million.

More than 279,000 packs and 702 cans of tobacco were found during searches of warehouses in the industrial zone in the suburbs of Odesa.

Further illegal sale of products was planned not only on the territory of Odesa region, but also throughout Ukraine. Wholesale and retail through websites, Telegram channels and retail outlets.

On the territory of the same premises the day before, detectives uncovered a large-scale production of a full cycle of counterfeit perfume products of well-known global brands. The scheme for the production of perfumes was carried out by an organized criminal group of persons which included natives of the Syrian Arab Republic.

Pretrial investigation in criminal proceedings based on Part 3 of Art. 229 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (illegal use of a mark for goods and services, a company name, a qualified indication of the origin of goods by an organized group with the task of material damage in a particularly large amount) is carried out by detectives of the Territorial Management Bureau in the Odesa region under the procedural guidance of the Odesa regional prosecutor's office and operational support of the Office of Strategic Investigations NPU in Odesa region.

We will remind that the detectives of the Economic Security Bureau of Ukraine together with the detectives of the Territorial Department of the ESBU in the Lviv region conducted searches on the territory of one of the tobacco factories. More details https://esbu.gov.ua/en/news/esbu-conducts-searches-at-the-tobacco-factory